Varkala

Beautiful Beach

View of the next beach north from the cliff

Tea with Mrs. Duggars

 

The beaches just get better and better.

The beach we're staying on is Papanasam Beach. It has been a Hindu pilgrimage site since the 12th century. The name Papanasam suggests "destroyer of all sins" so a dip in the holy waters is believed to wipe away all sins. It is also famous for yoga and Ayurveda. The nearby town has an important temple. While walking the beach this morning we saw all sorts of people practicing yoga, tai chi, meditation, hula hooping  as well as some local people giving offerings and devotions. We found out that part of Hindu devotions can include explosives so quite often in the mornings and evenings we hear what sounds like gunshots or in the extreme case the finale of a 4^th of July fireworks display. The night we came here we grabbed a cab from the train station and on the way to the guesthouse we found ourselves in the middle of a huge festival with floats, singing, drums and praying. Not sure if it was a special holiday or the sort of thing that happens any night but it was very joyous.

Lots of hippies of all ages here. You can easily find any type of hippie gear that you need. Tie-dye and baggy harem pants are quite a popular choice. We haven’t reverted back to our hippie days but Mike did have a simple cotton shirt made by a tailor for about Rs550 (9 bucks) and I bought a few light cotton shirts

Most of the lodgings are up on the cliff but we found a great place right on the beach. A cute little cottage with a fridge and a little kitchen so we stocked up on fruit and veggies, cereal and milk and we can make our tea in the morning. The place is definitely the best we’ve stayed at- no AC but we don’t need it. We also have a sweet little veranda where we can play our evening game of cribbage. Every morning a little mongrel dog hangs on the porch with us. We call her Mrs. Duggars because it is quite obvious that she has had a few litters of puppies. It occurred to me this morning that she might be expecting again. I just hope she doesn’t decide to give birth on our porch.

The place is spotless, super reasonable and the service here is amazing.  Every day they stock our fridge with fresh bottled water. There is also a brass bowl on the porch filled daily with fresh flowers. In the evening a young man comes around with a couple of sticks of incense which he lights and puts in the holder in the middle of the bowl. It’s a nice little ritual. There’s also a really good restaurant. Maybe our only complaint is that the WiFi is a little sketch so we’re slightly out of touch until we get to a bigger city but that’s OK too.

The water that we are on is called the Lakshadweep Sea- part of the Indian Ocean. It is the clearest water we have seen here. There is a team of beach cleaners working all day to keep things neat and lifeguards keeping an eye out for rips. The other beaches we’ve been at have had clean water but it’s pretty roiled up and brown. There have been nice sized waves every day and beyond the breakers the visibility is good.

We were just going to try this place out for a couple of days but decided to stay over a week. Life continues to be good…